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Subjects | Fact sheet | Samples
History: Sample quotations
Alexander II
Tsar of Russia
It is better to abolish serfdom from above than to wait for it to abolish itself from below.
[Speech to the Moscow nobility March 1856]
Clement Attlee
British Labour politician
We have seen today a gallant, civilized and democratic people betrayed and handed over to a ruthless despotism.
[Speech in the House of Commons during the Munich debate October 1938]
John Ball
English priest
From the beginning all were created equal by nature, slavery was introduced through the unjust oppression of worthless men, against the will of God; for, if God had wanted to create slaves, he would surely have decided at the beginning of the world who was to be slave and who master.
[Sermon at Blackheath, 1381]
Georges Bidault
French prime minister
Freedom is when one hears the bell at 7 o'clock in the morning and knows it is the milkman and not the Gestapo.
[The Observer 23 April 1950]
P W Botha
Former South African president
I only apologize for my sins before God.
[Newsweek 1999; on refusing to appear before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.]
Charles de Gaulle
French general and first president of the Fifth Republic
Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word.
[E Mignon Les Mots du Général]
Dwight Eisenhower
US president and general
The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.
[Order to Allied troops, D-Day 1944]
Mahatma Gandhi
Indian spiritual and nationalist leader
What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of
totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?
[Non-Violence in Peace and War vol. 1, ch. 142]
Louis XIV
King of France
How could God do this to me after all I have done for Him?
[Attributed remark, on hearing of the defeat of the French at the Battle of Blenheim]
Binyamin Netanyahu
Israeli politician and diplomat, leader of the Likud from 1993 and prime minister from 1996
Only the United States understands us, and not, as many people think, because there is a big Jewish community there, but because they see us as the new promised land, like their own America.
[Newsweek 1999.]
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